Occupation / job
Data Entry Keyers
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
At $41,340 against $50,020, this pays $723 a month less than the typical American job. Below the midpoint but within reach of it: the spread and the floor below decide whether that description flatters Data Entry Keyers or not.
127,080 people are employed as Data Entry Keyers. At that size there is a real ladder and enough churn that experience can be sold to a competitor rather than only accumulated where you are.
These office roles suit people who want steady indoor work with a defined task set, and who can sustain accuracy through volume rather than variety.
No verified preparation time is on file for Data Entry Keyers. The wage survey behind every figure on this page asks employers what they pay, not what they required, so the honest answer here is that we do not know.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Data Entry Keyers earn under $35,760 and a quarter over $48,410 — 1.4x, or $12,650 apart. Narrow spreads usually mean a pay schedule, which is stability bought at the price of upside.
A quarter of Data Entry Keyers earn under $35,760, which is $14,260 short of the $50,020 national midpoint. Assume you start there and check whether the arithmetic still works.
Avoid it if you need a role with clear progression; these posts are frequently the first ones consolidated away.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 127,080 people employed as Data Entry Keyers; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
The quarters are $35,760 and $48,410, a ratio of 1.4x. In a distribution this narrow, the biggest single lever on your pay in Data Entry Keyers is the cost of living where you do it.
Put in money rather than ratios: $35,760 at the 25th percentile, $41,340 at the midpoint, $48,410 at the 75th. $12,650 separates the quarter of Data Entry Keyers at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $48,410. Reaching it from the $41,340 midpoint is $7,070 a year; reaching it from the $35,760 that the bottom quarter of Data Entry Keyers earn is $12,650.
The climb from $41,340 to $48,410 is $7,070; the drop to $35,760 is $5,580. A little more room above the midpoint than below it is the normal shape for Data Entry Keyers and for most paid work, and it is the reason the median is the honest summary rather than the average.
Per hour at a standard full-time year that is $19.87 at the midpoint for Data Entry Keyers, $17.19 at the 25th percentile and $23.27 at the 75th, against $24.04 for the typical American job.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Employers reported these wages for people already working as Data Entry Keyers. The self-employed are excluded, so $41,340 does not describe an independent doing the same work.
The hourly number on this page is $41,340 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Data Entry Keyers, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else